Italians to spend 85 euros a head for St Valentine's Day

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 13 - Italians will spend 85 euros a head for St Valentine's Day, according to a survey out Tuesday that said there will be fewer presents and more romantic dinners this year as a cost of living crunch doesn't deter inhabitants of the Bel Paese from feting their love.
    Some six out of 10 Italians will celebrate St Valentine's Day, with spending up around 14 euros on last year at 85 euro per capita, said the survey by market-research institute IPSOS for retail group Confcommercio.
    But higher prices will hit the dinner table a bit, as one out of five dinners will be prepared at home this year instead of eating out, a rise on last year, said the report.
    More younger Italians, 66% of under 34s, than older ones, 57% of over 34s, will mark the feast.
    Some 73% of the 1,000 consumers polled said they would be having romantic dinner while 61% said they will be giving a present as token of their love.
    Flowers are proving recession-proof in Italy on Valentine's Day as nearly 13 million bouquets and arrangements are expected to sell by the end of Wednesday, according to Italian farmers group Cia.
    Despite the flagging economy, couples on the most romantic of holidays are still eager to buy flowers, mostly roses, with over 10 million expected to burst out of flower shops.
    Bouquets are sure to be abundant outside St Valentine's birthplace at Terni in Umbria, where each year lovers swear undying passion in the cathedral that houses the saint's head.
    Couples also flock each year to the small Sardinian town of Sadali near Nuoro to ask the saint to look kindly on them and bless engagements.
    The ritual has been going on for centuries in the town's 15th-century church, only the second in Italy to be devoted to St Valentine.
    In local dialect the saint is affectionately known as Su Coiadori (''he who betrothes'') and many of the couples expect their pilgrimage to bless their marriage (''coias'' in dialect).
    As well as saintly enterprises, Italy boasts other romantic rites for St Valentine's Day.
    The small southern town of Vico del Gargano, for instance, has a 300-year-old tradition of garlanding a lovers' lane for couples to cuddle and exchange love's promises.
    Other places, like Leonardo da Vinci's birthplace in Tuscany, have a more practical bent.
    Vinci council has turned their sports centre's car park, popular with courting couples, into a Love Park with dim lighting and handy receptacles for litter left by love-making.
    photo: a heart made out of 500 roses in Turin (ANSA).